More than three out of four individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities live at home with a family member. Of those not living with a family member, 84% share a home with six or fewer people with developmental disabilities. These statistics highlight the trend of community living for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, which is supported by federal and state policy.

ACL is announcing a funding opportunity to increase integration and independence of individuals with developmental disabilities and to improve the quality of home- and community-based services (HCBS) by developing and testing one or more model approaches of a coordinated and comprehensive system for enhancing and ensuring the independence, integration, safety, health, and well-being of individuals living in the community. Learn more about this funding opportunity due on July 24.

The model must address two interrelated core-components:

· Community Monitoring-Development and implementation of a coordinated system using multiple community and state level partners for monitoring the safety, health, and well-being of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities living in a variety of community settings and identifying and eliminating the risk factors for tracking, redressing and preventing abuse, neglect and exploitation in community settings; and

· Community Capacity Building-Application of evidence based practices and innovative strategies focusing on improving services that support people with developmental disabilities living in the community or those moving to the community from a more restrictive setting; access to and quality of community services through capacity building and scaling of evidence based and other promising practices; reducing and mitigating the incidence of and risk factors for abuse and neglect; and supporting empowerment, self-determination, self-advocacy, and an individual’s independence, autonomy and right to live alongside their non-disabled neighbors.